Launching just across the bridge at Gwynn’s Island with a full load of beach stuff and the stowed sailing rig.

We motored 2.5 miles out to the sandy southern tip of the island in about 45 minutes. I didn’t keep track of the watts consumed, but it was slow going against the wind, tide, and chop. A couple of times we’d hit a wake and almost come to a stop.

About 50 feet from shore the amps suddenly shot up and progress ground to a halt. Fortunately it’s quite shallow and I could jump out to pull us to shore. I was surprised by how loose the grass was to still foul things up. I later swapped to the stock propeller but didn’t get a chance to test its weed shedding ability.

After getting our umbrella set up I started getting the rig together. We were the second boat out to the point and the other couple seemed pretty interested in what I was doing. I’ve only ever seen one or two sail boats out here amongst the horde of power boaters.

I haven’t sailed since last summer’s trip to Kure Beach and it took a bit of time to get the lines on the snotter running right. It’s so easy to get halyards outside of the jib sheets or the reef lines inside the sail’s robands. I put in a preemptive reef since it was blowing a good 10-15 with some gusts.

Eventually I got everything set and took off. Once I got some sea room I hoisted the jib which took a few tries to get tensioned enough. If I wasn’t building a Long Steps I think I’d build a homemade roller furler for it.

I didn’t take any pictures from the boat since I just bought a new phone and didn’t have a case for it. After getting the jib set up I headed downwind along the shore and then tacked my way back upwind to the beach for a 7.4 mile trip in 1.5 hours. It was slow going since everything was against me… the wind, the tide, a short and steep chop, and a reefed sail. The best I could do was a 150º tacking angle. Despite sailing at 5-6 mph on each tack, I only made 1.3 mph toward my destination. I’ve heard it’s often faster to row upwind than it is to sail and I think this might be some good evidence!

After lunch and Henry’s nap a ton of boats showed up. I thought the wind might keep them away, but a friend said more than likely it just takes a while for them to sober up from Friday night and get going.

Henry had a great time sitting in the sternsheets wiggling the tiller as the boat hunted back and forth in the wind.

Finally it was time to pack up and head home. I decided we could sail back to the ramp since it was dead downwind. I dispensed with the jib so there’d be fewer lines in the way and less things to keep track of.